It's Thursday!!!!

And two of my classes are reviewing. The third class is going to learn about Abraham Lincoln. I never realized how much grade school textbooks boil things down to the basics. I was actually getting angry last night as I read the entire (4-page) section that describes all of Abraham Lincoln's life. There was hardly any detail at all!!! My 7th graders didn't really cooperate today, so we cut the review short by 10 minutes. I just sat down at my desk and said, "If you're not going to let me teach, that's fine. It's your review for your test tomorrow." We were going to work on the hardest thing that we've covered so far. What they don't know is that so many of them don't get it that I'm not going to test them on it. The 8th graders are going to review with Play-Doh today. It's going to be a $30 lesson (seriously, that's what the Play-Doh costs). We are learning about early civilizations and the first writing systems. So...all the questions they wrote down yesterday on their cards (I read them to see what we need to review today) we are going to cover. Then, using toothpicks and Play-Doh, they are going to summarize each point. Using hieroglyphics and pictures. Hopefully it's A) fun and B) not a mess.

I have one test written, and need to write the other one tonight. I've also been telling my 6th graders all week that we're going to have a fun activity about tariffs. So I have to plan out a simulation/role play for tomorrow. I'm going to have some kids be plantation owners, some be American (Northern) factory-owners, some be English factory owners, some be Southern citizens, and some be Northern citizens. We're going to run through it once or twice without tariffs, and (hopefully) they will see that English clothing was cheaper and that the South sold cotton to the North and England. Then, I'll slap a tariff on the English goods and (hopefully) they will see that English goods become more expensive. There are a few more points I hope to make, but it might be a little too ambitious.

I'll let you know how the simulation goes. And, for those of you who knew that I'm sick, I'm much better today. Literally nothing but a little runny nose.